CONVERGENCE
Classic Hollywood Film Industry Model The producers of films, the studio Managers, and the distributors were able to control the production, distribution, and marketing of films being created by the major film companies. (e.g. Paramount, RKO, Warner Brothers, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, and MGM) . A film studio had major control over their actors and writers. Gaps in the Plot Were Not Good Gaps tended to leave spaces within a film. Many viewers were left without an understanding of the films after they just watched them. This made many viewers dislike films, in a sense that they failed to fully explain the story. Furthermore, they felt that the films were incompleteor halfway told.Most younger audiences were willing to go to the extreme and find these extended clues. However, the more elderlly audiences were more use to the traditional ways of story telling. This made gaps a bad thing, being that some of the viewers did'nt fully understand the message.Furthermore, these gaps made film to some viewers,, impossible to understand.For the elderly, earlier generation of filmgoers, it was understood that a film would be self-contained in its storyline, character placement, and conclusion of the story. As well as having a beginning (set up), middle (confrontation), and end (resolution) of a story all within the ninety minute to two-hour film viewing time. In the earlier day of film, Gaps in the plot were good and more structured then it is today. Earlier films followed structure in plot, such as, having a balance, ignition, rising action/climax, and resolution. Films were more linear compared to today, for example, The Matrix, the plot that was circular, it had multiple meanings to one's interpetation and it doesn't follow traditional story telling. By directors doing this, it allows consumers or filmgoers to follow the transmedia story tellling by buying games or comic books for films that has a complex plots that dont pursue a single path of a beginning, middle, and end. '''2. The film-going experience was contained to one sitting whether at the theater or at the tv/vcr.''' This concept revolves around the principle of 'appointment television' which is part of TV 1.0 where in the past, prior to the emergence of internet media, television programs were only offered by the four major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and the Dumont Channel), and could only be seen at a scheduled time of day thus forcing the viewer into the programs' time frames. This concept was also part of the decline in movie attendence (Rodman, p. 160) '''#''' Why "Gaps" in the Plot Were Not Good The 1930’s marked the beginning of the golden era. The golden era took place from 1930’s to the 1950’s and was said to have produced some of the best movies in film history. At this period in time films were fairly new to audiences having not quite incorporated sound and color but none the less audiences were very much interested so much that going to the movies was a weekly ritual for Americans. In 1946 75 percent of Americans over 90 million people went to the movies (today’s estimation is about 20 million 7.5%) which clearly shows a decline in weekly viewers. It was also stated that in the 1930’s and 40’s films very much emulated American culture and American culture at that time did not deal with transmedia storytelling, the internet did not exist yet and the gaps in movies were not appreciated because the gaps would not be explained. Gaps are not good in this era due to the fact it forces veiwers to do homework on the film through various other media sources who might not want to exert that type of energy to figure out the plot of the movie. Some veiwers may want to understand the plot of the movie without having to research it like a case study but the gaps in the movie will make that virtually impossible which is the reason why many veiwers leave the movie theater scratching their heads in confussion unsure as to what the plot or the point of the movie was. Movies such as casablanca became classics becuase as Umberto Eco stated " First, he argues, the work must come to us as a completely furnished so that its fans can qoute charecters and episodes as if they were aspects of the private sectarian world".(Jenkins pg. 99) Umberto also stated tht the meterial given to the audeince should be able to be mastered and gaps in the movie does not allow this to happen. Why "Gaps" in Movies Are Good Now Gaps can now be seen as ways to engage within content. Gaps allow consumers to engage deeply, through different forms of media content. This includes web browsing, video games and more. These gaps allow further interpretation. Furthermore, it expands a film, and also offers more ways of understanding it. These gaps offer history and backgrounds of many characters in films. They are considered extentions within a film, in which consumers are welcomed to explore.However, gaps used to be refered to as bad being that it left the viewer in a state of mystery.Now, gaps allow further participation, and encourages consumers to engage with content. Gaps allow a film to become multi demensional. These gaps are essential to the consumers, they allow consumers to dig deeper.Users can now find information or clues elsewhere, besides the actual film. Furthermore, these gaps ellaborate on the film, and allows further interpretation.Now there are unexplained gaps which are good because the culture and era that we now live in is said to be one that consists of viewers who are mainly teenagers. Teenagers being the target market would naturally force a movie franchise to tailor its movies to meet the interest of these young viewers. This era has also been known as the era of doing homework, meaning in order for a viewer to view a movie and not feel inadequate but rather empowered one must do his/her research on the movie through various transmedia outlets such as the video games, comic books, online animations, etc. These teenagers who are the target market interact with the type of new technologies that were not available in times such as the Golden Age of film which is one of the main reasons why gaps in movies are now accepted. Our generation has various different outlets to now close the gaps. Movie franchises forcing their viewers to do their home work not only bring a new found interest to a declining industry but also help fuel our participation culture where we can all pool together and utilize our collective intelligence, which is why gaps in the movie is now good and is embraced. For a time there was a similar concept for professionally created filmmaking in that movies would only be distributed, produced, and controlled by the major studios (Paramount, Sony, RKO, Warner Brothers, MGM, 20th Century Fox, and Universal) and they would not be aired on television for months, if not years, after their theatrical release. This was a tactic to control the revenue of a commercial film. '''3. The product remained the same across platforms (theater, tv, vhs)''' As previously stated: Movies were self contained units consisting of a beginning, middle, and end where the ultimate goal of a film (moreso a film's franchise) would be to engage the viewer into a films franchise. (e.g. Pirates of the Carribean, The Matrix, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and the like) are using different platforms '''4. Film studios protected the integrity of their products. They were more “prohibitionist,” they limited the ways we could participate with the film experience.''' Film, telivision and the recording industries are all apart of the old regimes that did not embrace fan collaberation of their franchise's works. "Prohibitionists" are groups who seek to regulate and criminalize fan participation. Film studios became fearfull of the fact that their product may be manipulated in such a way that the consumer becomes a recreator/cocreater of the film studios work and that their works may take on an identity of its own thus going the direction that is unsuitible to the company. Dellegates from the Lucasfilm studios for example believes in the stuctured approach of "fandom" which means they much rather the consumer appreciate the storyline the way it was pressented to them, rather then have the consumer try and recreate it from their own perspective or point of veiw. The main concerns that is expressed from these film industries about their franchise is one, the money that is generated from the consumer recreated versions of the studios original works two, who will be given credit for these recreations and three, does these recreations repressent fully or jepordize what the brand stands for, an example would be a fan making a R rated recreation of a PG movie thus tarnishing its morality in this case. The main problem stems from the fact that neither side (Studio or Consumer) knows where to draw the line in the sand. Industries did not encourage fan participation. They were very protective about thier films. Furthermore, they put limitations on the way fans could participate with thier films. Film studios were "prohibitionist", they disregarded fan collaboration as well as thier opinions. By doing this, they allowed fans to produce however, they could not benefit or profit. In other words, all the hard work created by fans, only promoted and profited the film studios.The most obvious example of controlling a film's intelectual properites would be George Lucas's Star Wars franchise. This franchise has clear limitations as to what actions can be taken within the universe of the film's franchise; a character's image, appearance, backstory, and actions cannot be severely altered by anyone outside of the Lucusfilms corporation. Moreover fans cannot add characters to the franchise or universe. However there are certain internet communities that have taken on a life of their own where participants have developed amalgamations of storyline and character that could almost stand on their own in terms of originality and creativity. There have been several parodies alluding to the Lucas franchise including George Lucas In Love (Jenkins p. 136) which takes the theme of the film Shakespheare in Love and applies itself to Star Wars. Troops (Jenkins p. 136) which is a spoof of the reality televison show Cops using the Empire stormtroopers in the same capacity as police officers where the activities of the stormtroopers are chronicled on a daily basis consisting of investigating various criminal activities and destroying the Jedi Knights. Not to mention film contests (Jenkins p. 135) where audience engagement has generated a separate entity of creativity, audience engagement, and loyalty all based on the intellectual properties of the Star Wars franchise. Film directors, including George Lucas didnt allow fan participation because they see their corporation at risk for being sued for plagiarism if they allow themselves to come into contact with fan-produced materials that mimicked the dramatic structure of the film franchise should anything in any official Star Wars or film related material make use if similar characters or situations. '''Discuss how these statements, are no longer true in the age of convergence and how, in fact, convergence culture is leading the industry towards models that oppose these statements. Use contemporary examples, anchor your answer with Rodman & Jenkins, and feel free to use contemporary film franchises to further illustrate. '''